1.6 Family Diversity Flashcards
1
Q
Summary of Family Diversity
A
- Modernism (Nuclear Family)
2. Postmodernism (Family Diversity)
2
Q
- Modernism
A
- Functionalism
- New Right (Lone Parents, Cohabitation)
- Criticisms of New Right
- Chester: Neo-Conventional Family
- The Rapoports: 5 Types of Family Diversity
3
Q
- Postmodernism
A
- Stacey
- Individualisation Thesis
- Giddens: Pure Relationship
- Beck: Negotiated Family
- Criticisms of Indiviudalisation Thesis
- Connectedness Thesis
4
Q
1.1 Functionalism
A
Parsons:
- There is a ‘functional fit’ between nuclear family and society.
- Nuclear family is uniquely suited for meeting the needs of modern society…
- Geographically / Socially Mobile Workforce
- 2 Irreducible Functions
- Other family types: dysfunctional
- Cannot perform the functions required
5
Q
1.2 New Right
A
- One correct family: traditional patriarchal nuclear family
- Family is natural and based on biological differences
- NR oppose changes: cohabitation, gay marriage and lone parenthood (cause of many social problems)
- Only a return to ‘traditional values’ can solve problems
Lone Parents:
- NR concerned about the growth of lone parent families
- Cannot disciple children properly
- Leave boys without an adult male role model…
- Educational failure, delinquency, social instability
- Likely to be poorer (burden on welfare state)
Cohabitation vs Marriage:
- NR claim main cause of lone-parent families is collapes of relationships between cohabiting couples
- Benson: analysed data on the parents of over 15,000 babies
- Over first 3 years of baby’s life, rate of family breakdown: 20% for cohabiting couples / 6% for married couples.
- Benson: concluded couples more stable when married
- Marriage is more stable because it requires a deliberate commitment to each other.
6
Q
1.3 Criticisms of New Right
A
- Oakley (Feminist): New Right wrongly assumes roles are fixed by biology.
- No evidence that children in lone-parent families more likely to be delinquent
- Smart: rate of cohabitation is higher among poorer couples (poverty may be cause of breakdowns of relationships)
7
Q
1.4 Chester: Neo-Conventional Family
A
- Recognises there has been increased family diversity
- Does not seen it as negative / very significant
- Identifies change from conventional to neo-conventional
- Conventional: nuclear family favoured by NR and F
- Neo-Conventional: both partners work
- Chester sees limited change beyond this.
- People not in nuclear family either were in the past or will be in the future.
- Stats on household structure are misleading because they show a snapshot.
Evidence to Support Chester:
- Most live in household headed by married couple
- Most marry and have children
- Most Divorcees remarry
- Cohabitation is a temporary phase before marriage
8
Q
1.5 Rapoports: Five Types of Family Diversity
A
- Diversity is of central importance in understanding family
- We have moved away from traditional nuclear family’s dominance
- We now have a pluralistic society which reflects greater freedom of choice
Five Types:
- Social Class Diversity: Differences in family structure are partly the result of income difference between households of different social classes
- Organisational Diversity: ways family roles are organised (some couples have equal division of labour)
- Cultural Diversity: Different cultural groups have different family structures (e.g. African Caribbeans have higher proportion of female headed lone parents)
- Life-stage Diversity: family structures differ according to the stage of life
- Generational Diversity: Older / younger generations have different attitudes (E.g. to morality of divorce)
9
Q
2.1 Stacey
A
- Greater freedom has benefited women
- Freed them from patriarchal oppression
- Stacey used life history interviews of families in Silicon Valley…
- Found that women have been main agents of change in the family.
- Many who were interviewed had rejected traditional domestic roles
- Women created new types of family that better suited their needs. (E.g. divorce extended family)
- Members are connected by divorce (tend to be female and include former in-laws)
- Stacey identifies Pam Gamma who married, divorced and then cohabitated.
- This illustrates that postmodern families are diverse and can change
- Morgan: pointless trying to make large-scale generalisations about ‘the family’. People create their own families.
10
Q
2.2 Individualisation Thesis
A
- Giddens and Beck have been influenced by postmodernist ideas about society.
- Giddens and Beck explore the effects of increasing individual choice upon families: individualisation thesis
- It argues that traditional social structures have lost their much of their influence over us.
- In the past: lives were defined by fixed roles
(expectations of marriage) - Today: fewer certainties.
Beck: ‘standard biography’ that people followed has been replaced by the ‘do-it-yourself biography’
- In the past: lives were defined by fixed roles
11
Q
2.3 Giddens
A
- Family has been transformed by greater choice and equality between men and women.
- This has occurred because…
- Contraception has allowed sex rather than
reproduction to become the main reason for the
relationship’s existence - Women have gained independence as a result of
feminism
- Contraception has allowed sex rather than
- In the past, traditional family was held together by external forces (law)
- Today, couples free to define relationship themselves.
The ‘Pure Relationship’:
- Relationships are based on individual choice
- Key Feature: exists to satisfy each partner’s needs
- Couples stay together because of satisfaction not tradition.
- Individuals are free to enter and leave as they see fit
- Giddens notes that this leads to relationships becoming less stable
Same-Sex Couples as Pioneers:
- Giddens sees same-sex relationships as leading the way to new family types.
- This is because same-sex relationships are not influenced by tradition to the extent that heterosexual relationships are. (stigmatisation / criminalisation)
- Same sex couples have been able to develop relationships based on choice not tradition
- Same-sex couples have negotiated personal relationships creating structure to serve their own needs
- Weston: same-sex couples created ‘families of choice’ from among former lovers and biological kin.
12
Q
2.4 Beck: Negotiated Family
A
- We now live in a ‘risk society’ (tradition: less influence, people: more choice)
- We’re more aware of risks (in decision making, we calculate risks and rewards)
- in the past, people’s roles were fixed by tradition.
- This was unequal and oppressive, it provided a stable and predictable basis for family life.
- Patriarchal family has been undermined by 2 trends:
1. Greater Gender Equality: women now expect equality at work and in marriage.
2. Greater Individualism: people’s action are influenced by self-interest. - Beck and Gernsheim: patriarchal family replaced by ‘negotiated family’
- Negotiated families vary according to the wished of their members.
- Enter relationship on an equal basis
- This is more equal, but less stable
- Individuals free to leave whenever.
Zombie Category:
- Beck describes family as a ‘zombie category’ appears to be alive, but is dead in reality.
13
Q
2.6 Connectedness Thesis:
A
- Sociologists put forward what Smart calls the ‘Connectedness Thesis’
- Smart: we are fundamentally social beings whose choices are always made ‘within a web of connectedness’
- We live within networks of existing relationships and interwoven personal histories that strongly influence our range of options.
- Finch and Mason: study of extended families found that, although individuals negotiate the relationships they want, family connections restrict them.
Class and Gender:
- Connectedness thesis emphasises role of class and gender limiting us.
- After a divorce, gender norms dictate child custody
- Men are generally paid better (greater freedom)
- Powerless of women and children mean lack of choice
Power of Structures:
- May: structures are not disappearing, they have re-shaped
- Einasdottir: lesbianism is now tolerated but heteronormativity means lesbians feel forced to remain the closet
- Social structures still shape the freedoms of family choices
14
Q
2.5 Criticisms of the Individualisation Thesis
A
- Individualisation thesis exaggerates how much choice people have about family relationships
- Budgeon: this reflects the neoliberal ideology that individuals today have complete freedom of choice
- In reality, traditional norms have some strength - Thesis sees people as ‘free-floating’ individuals.
- Our decisions about personal relationships are made within a social context. - Individualisation thesis ignores structural factors (patriarchy)
- May: Giddens’ and Beck’s view of the individual is simply ‘an idealised version of a white middle-class man’
